"The more you tighten your grip the more star systems will slip through your fingers"

Microsoft's hopes of controlling the
open document world were nearing fruition after the International Standards Organization finally certified its OOXML standard
at the start of April. The ISO had already ratified ODF, the competitive
open-source format from the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS) used heavily in Linux, but Microsoft faced a
lengthy struggle to try to get its own format recognized. Without
certification it would be tough to push the format as a legitimate open
document option.

Microsoft had good reason to want to control the world of open documents.
As users switch platforms and software more and more, and use an increasing
amount of open source solutions, the need for a non-software specific format
has surfaced. Microsoft hoped that by making its own proprietary
open-file format the preferred standard it could seize control of this budding
field.

However, to Microsoft's anger, the process has now been held up by complaints. Following rumors
that Microsoft pushed the vote through and used underhanded tactics to suppress
dissent, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela lent such claims credence
by filing complaints against the ratification.

The ratification cannot go forward until these complaints are heard, and they
must be voiced before the end of June. The final decision of how to react
to them will be handed to two management committees. India in particular
was quite vocal in its opposition. An open letter, written by a member of the technical
standardization committee in India, states that Microsoft's long and ambiguous
proposed specification left it unclear what was being implemented. He
says this means that Microsoft can implement the new format however it wants,
ruining the whole reason for ISO -- to promote openness.

He also accuses Microsoft of running a careful concerted smear campaign that
undercut the Indian concerns. He states:

Microsoft started filing complaints to various Indian
authorities in early March 2008, claiming bias on part of several members of
the committee because of their presumed membership of a group called ‘ODF Alliance
India’. My Institution and its representatives are part of the group which has
been falsely implicated in these complaints. Worse, the complaints have painted
these organizations and their representatives, including the Indian delegation
which attended the BRM, as acting against the Indian National interests. This
is the most derogatory accusation to any Indian, amounting, personally for me
at least, to intolerable blasphemy.

In the
letter he alleges that Microsoft pressured the Indian national government to
change its stance, and likely did so with other national governments as
well. He states that Microsoft behaved in a way "amounting to
interfering with the governance process of a sovereign country." He
concludes, "I would like to assure all colleagues and other readers that
my intentions are purely to respond to the grave provocation caused by the
actions of Microsoft."

Meanwhile ODF creators OASIS tried to steal a bit of the spotlight calling for an
"implementation, interoperability, and conformity" technical
committee to continue ODF's openness and quality. The entity plans on
trying to bring ISO or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) into the
project. Surprisingly Microsoft has expressed interest in joining the
committee, igniting many conspiracy theories on the internet.